Random amplified polymorphic DNA based genetic characterization of four important species of Bamboo, found in Raigad district, Maharashtra State, India

Abstract

Bamboos are arborescent grasses belonging to the family Poaceae and are grouped under the subfamily Bambusoideae. Bambusoideae are differentiated from other members of the family by the presence of petiolate blades with parallel venation and stamens are three, four, six or more, gynoecium is with single style with one to three stigmas and caryopsis. Bamboo is regarded as the major resource that meets the need of common man and also a poverty alleviator due to its multipurpose uses. The Raigad district, Maharashtra, India, is a good pocket of wild as well as cultivated bamboo. This district is rich in Bamboo flora specially four species viz. Bambusa bambos; Pseudoxytenanthera ritcheyi; Pseudoxytenanthera stocksii and Dendrocalamus strictus. To study the genetics of bamboo, one has to face enormous difficulties simply because of rare flowering and we cannot make hybridizations as easily as like other angiosperms. The randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) method is used for genetic characterization of bamboo. This method of DNA profiling is proven excellent for identification, phylogenetic analysis, population studies and genetic linkage mapping of many plant species. Establishing multilocus markers RAPD analysis of genomes provides a versatile and rapid technology requiring low infrastructural input and use of arbitrary primers for developing plant DNA fingerprinting. In the present study, a comparative genetic analysis of four species of bamboo B. bambus, P. ritcheyi, P. stocksii and D. strictus collected from different locations of Raigad district of Maharashtra, India had been carried out using PCR-RAPD analysis. The present results warrant an extensive survey of genetic variation between the given four species of bamboo. The results would be helpful in designing sequence characterized amplified regions (SCAR) marker for each species. These SCAR markers can be used as diagnostic marker to authenticate samples of given four species.

Keywords: Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA ( RAPD), DNA-fingerprinting, sequence characterized amplified regions (SCAR), Genetic characterization, ritcheyi, stocksii, Raigad.

African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(28), pp. 4446-4452